Reviews of A Fish Called Wanda

A Fish Called Wanda review

Posted : 3 weeks, 2 days ago on 8 December 2009 07:30 (A review of A Fish Called Wanda)

I didn't have very high expectations of A Fish Called Wanda when I was about to see it. I thought it was going to be just a funny piece of entertainment but when I saw it, it was way more than that. A Fish Called Wanda seriously is the funniest thing that I have ever watched and that I think I'll ever watch. A Fish Called Wanda is a film that I literally cried at with laughter because it was so funny! Watching this film was a real experience for me because this is the exact kind of comedy that I have been waiting for all my life. If I am ever in the mood for a laugh or need for cheering up, A Fish Called Wanda is always the perfect choice. When a hilarious bit came up, I just cried so hard it hurt and ran upstairs and screamed! This is one of the few films that I have seen that I have found perfect in every single way. This film even inspired me a lot for some unknown reason. A Fish Called Wanda is such an original comedy that does have a taste of it being a black-comedy because of the crime involved but it is a comedy you can just laugh at almost everything in this film.


John Cleese was absolutely amazing as Archie Leach. I am a massive fan of John Cleese especially in classic British comedy series Fawlty Towers. Archie's character is very similar to Basil Fawlty especially when Archie gets into really awkward situations especially when Wanda is involved. Archie is a middle aged man who enjoys his job but has a very boring personal life which makes him unhappy. When he meets Wanda for the first time, he is instantly taken by her and they begin an affair. Wanda's "brother" but really another lover Otto begins to get jealous and that just gets out of control. As I said, watching Archie was like watching Basil Fawlty all over again. Jamie Lee Curtis' performance as Wanda Gershwitz was unbelievable! She should have had an Oscar nomination alongside Kevin Kline. Jamie was the perfect choice for Wanda because she is a very sexy young woman but is also a brilliant actress who is a complete bitch. Wanda takes advantage of her beauty by trying to fool Otto, Ken, George and Archie into getting the loot. She becomes part of a robbery along with George, Ken and Otto but George moves the loot. Her and Otto turn George into the police just before they found out George moved the loot. Jamie was probably the hottest film actress of the 80s which makes her the perfect choice for Wanda. She made the film even funnier than it already was anyway. It is really funny when Otto speaks Italian to her and she is so turned on by it. Kevin Kline's performance as Otto is the funniest film performance that I have ever seen! It is one of the best acting performances of all time too! Otto is a character that is my perfect comedy character that I can mimic words from. He just makes me laugh so much especially when he throws himself around and speaks Italian. Kline won an Oscar for this film which is really rare for the comedy genre in the acting category. Otto is without a doubt now one of my all-time favourite characters of all time. Kevin Kline's performance wasn't only the funniest performance ever but also one of the best male supporting performances ever too. It's funny because Otto is the villain of the film but is the funniest of all the characters within the film. He can be funny as in laugh-out-loud and can also be laughable but in a dark way because of some of the things he does. Michael Palin as Ken was hilarious as well. Ken is a close friend of Wanda and George who lives with them. When he meets Otto for the first time, they instantly become enemies. Ken has a big stutter that is hilarious yet very unfortunate especially when Otto teases him by mocking him. For example "Hello, K-K-Ken's p-p-pets!" Ken is another man who Wanda tries to fool to get the loot as well as Archie, George and Otto. John Cleese and Connie Booth's real-life daughter Cynthia Cleese portrayed Cleese's on-screen daughter Portia.


Charles Crichton creates one of the most original comedies of all time. The camera angles on this film were absolutely perfect! Crichton and Cleese handled this film very well and wrote it really well. Every single thing about this film is perfect! Just by watching this film, it really does look like a laugh during filming and I can easily tell that the cast became friends very quickly. The script is one of the best scripts of all time. It was written like it was meant for pure entertainment but was like a landmark of comedies.


A Fish Called Wanda is one of the best comedies ever! I call it THE comedy of all time. This film has one of the best ensemble cast of all time too with absolutely fantastic Oscar worthy performances from the whole cast. Jamie Lee Curtis' performance is one of the best leading female performances of all time. Kevin Kline's performance is one of the very best supporting male performances of all time too. It is a comedy that I cried with laughter at and still can despite having watched it so many times. It is the first of a new kind of comedy but nothing today has been compared to it today apart from Fierce Creatures in which we see the cast return again after 10 years. A Fish Called Wanda is way better than Fierce Creatures even though I really like that one. A Fish Called Wanda is the perfect film to watch when I need or I'm in the mood for a laugh or need cheering up. It is a hilarious, wacky, crazy and original film that I absolutely love and I don't think any comedy will ever replace it as my favourite comedy.

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A Comedy Called Perfection!!

Posted : 1 year, 2 months ago on 25 October 2008 12:12 (A review of A Fish Called Wanda)

"I love robbing the English, they're so polite."

How does one distinguish the difference between a masterpiece and just another ordinary comedy? For starters, an ordinary comedy is commonly clichéd beyond all comprehension - i.e. characters are standard, events are glaringly foreseeable and the structure is far too formulaic. In addition, an ordinary comedy usually features well-known actors who are so desperate for laughs that they overact (like Will Ferrell, Jim Carrey, and so on) rather than dispersing clever, witty, cerebral dialogue. In an ordinary comedy the laughs are also predominantly forgettable. And finally, an ordinary comedy is funny but nothing further. It doesn't break new boundaries...it's just another comedy that'll be long forgotten and relegated to the $5 bargain bin at your local shops. But when we're talking about Hollywood movie studios, the executives just want a quick buck to raise their annual profits. Ordinary comedies are easy to make, cheap, and quality is never the concern. Genuine masterpieces of the comedy genre are close to non-existent. Only John Cleese of the Monty Python fame could've been capable of developing the perfect comedy...and he succeeds!

A Fish Called Wanda ticks all the boxes to pull it out of the "ordinary comedy" territory. The film isn't clichéd at all; characters are extraordinarily well-written, the film isn't predictable, and the structure is original. The script is peppered with dynamite dialogue, in-jokes and memorable lines (that I continually quote almost daily) as it moves from one hilarious, creative scenario to the one succeeding it. It even breaks new boundaries with its prize-winning combination of laughs and creativity. It's purely one of the most entertaining films of all time! Best of all, despite countless viewing it always seems fresh and never fails to entertain me. And I’m not alone in my sentiments. The film pulled in $60 million in the USA, making it the highest grossing British picture in America at that time. All these ingredients ensure that A Fish Called Wanda is anything but ordinary.

On the surface, it probably seems difficult to imagine this film being even considered funny. After all, this is a flick concerning diamond robbers double and triple crossing each other, not to mention it's also somewhat mean-spirited at times and cruel to animals. But by golly the package works! The result will bring tears of laughter to your eyes and side-splitting pains to your stomach as you roll all over the floor laughing uncontrollably.
A Fish Called Wanda is reminiscent of the days of Fawlty Towers and Monty Python. This is Cleese in his element: finding himself in awkward situations and having to worm his way out of them. If you're a fan of Fawlty Towers (or is it Flowery Twats or Flay Otters or Watery Fowls?), like I am, you'll have a good grasp of the laugh-out-loud comedy I'm referring to. Considering John Cleese's mostly awful recent work, it's terrific to revisit those winners he scored back in his glory days. Seriously, not many comedies get nominated for Oscars! Let alone a comedy of British origins up for Oscar noms, ultimately walking away with one win. If you want the short version, here it is: if you haven't yet seen A Fish Called Wanda then you're missing out and should immediately visit your local shop to secure a copy.

A Fish Called Wanda is a simple tail...erm, tale about betrayal, love, lust, greed and seafood. Wanda (Curtis) and Otto (Kline) are a duo of American thieves who visit Britain to pull off a diamond heist. They team up with George (Georgeson) and the animal-loving Ken (Palin) to commit an armed robbery, walking away with a loot worth $20 million US. Trouble is...Wanda and Otto are lovers posing as brother and sister who plan to double-cross their collaborators, taking off with the loot themselves. But it also seems George and Ken are mistrusting of Wanda and Otto (despite George and Wanda commencing a relationship, which Wanda faked of course). George double-crosses Wanda and Otto by secretly moving the loot before Wanda and Otto have the opportunity to finalise their double-crossing of George! Anyway, George is dobbed into the police and is arrested. When Wanda and Otto realise they'll need to figure out the new location of the loot, a somewhat complex plan to find it becomes necessitous. This involves Wanda inveigling her way into the life of jaded Etonian Archie Leach (Cleese), George's barrister. However...what begins as a simple spot of using somebody to further her own means becomes more complicated as Wanda's attraction to this somewhat repressed and cute ("in a pompous sort of way") barrister grows. Oh, and then there's Ken's little project to dispose of the only witness to their diamond heist. Utter anarchic hilarity ensues.

The plotline is fun to be sure, but it's the characters that are at the heart of the film. The central appeal is the characters' faults and peculiarities - George is your typical evil mastermind, Wanda will sleep with anybody if the occasion calls for it, Ken prefers animals to humans, and Archie is a snobbish and repressed Englishman hen-pecked by wife (Aitken) and daughter (Cynthia Cleese, who's John's real-life daughter). Then there's Otto. He's...well...Otto. Kevin Kline plays the malicious and cruel but incompetent Otto with such wild abandon.

John Cleese is in his element as writer and an actor for the film. In addition to conceiving such rich characterisations and providing a tradition Cleese-esque performance, he also sprinkles the film with the kind of devilish humour he's revered for. His character of Archie Leach is a variation of Basil Fawlty from his popular TV series. He's a stiff-upper-lipped English barrister not above a little avarice and hanky panky. Cleese said he chose the name Archie Leach because it's Cary Grant's real name, and this was about as close as he'd ever get to being Cary Grant in a film. However, the film doesn't rely solely on John Cleese for the laughs as the rest of the actors are total knockouts.

Kevin Kline won an Oscar for his eccentric performance as Otto: an ex-CIA operative who reads the philosophies of Nietzche to make him look smart. But in reality he's so stupid! ("Don't call me stupid") He thinks Aristotle was Belgian, the central message of Buddhism is every man for himself, and that the London underground is a political movement. When Wanda calls him an ape, Otto replies with "Apes don't read philosophy". "Yes, they do, Otto," Wanda then replies. "They just don't understand it."
Otto's character is so well-written that there's always something new to pick up on. Kline never strikes an incorrect note, and definitely deserved the Oscar he received.

Playing Wanda, Jamie Lee Curtis is an absolute delight. She's as smart as she is sexy. From the deadly serious Halloween to a light-hearted comedy...Jamie Lee Curtis demonstrates her talents as a versatile performer. She even does a fine job of making Wanda curiously nefarious but intriguingly beguiling at the same time - when she's not snogging everyone that moves, that is.

Then there's Michael Palin (from the golden days of Monty Python) as the hapless K-K-K-K-Ken. He spends most of his time stuttering hopelessly (this is absolutely side-splitting at times) or tending to his animals. Kevin Kline is given a batch of hilarious lines in relation to Ken's stutter: "Are you thinking, Ken? Or are you in mid-stutter?", "...those phoney accents! Not you Ken, you've got a beautiful speaking voice...when it works" and so on. In Ken's assignment to kill a witness before George's trial commences, he instead accidentally targets the old woman's dogs in gruesome ways. This is all the more ironic because Ken is such an animal lover who wouldn't hurt a fly. Seeing him at each funeral for the dogs is just hilarious.
For Tom Georgeson's character, Cleese decided to do a clever name switch...calling the character George Thomason.

Despite its runaway success, A Fish Called Wanda wasn't all good news from the start. It was helmed by a director who hadn't worked for 25 years, it featured a male actor on the wrong side of 40, and it also featured a sexy female with a great body who refused to do any nudity. But those that gave the film a chance walked away raving. It established a template for the future of British comedy exports. Even Richard Curtis was taking notes at this time. The film walked away with a basket of awards. In order to reach such perfection, the script went through 13 drafts. Director Charlie Crichton and John Cleese got together three times a month for two-and-a-half years to give the script touch-ups.

When production finally started, they managed to wrap up filming in a mere four weeks. Crichton's economic direction meant not a day was wasted. This also gave the film its glorious fast pace. Before you realise it, the film is over and you're howling for more. Thankfully, though, none of the gags have dated and they seem fresh even after constant viewings. The snappy dialogue, the subtle images...even John Cleese's striptease are wonderful no matter how many times you watch the film. And finally, the film was given its definitive touch in post-production: the music. John Du Prez's music is catchy and atmospheric, and you'll be humming the theme for weeks.

Mixing Python-esque humour with a sweet touch of rom-com, A Fish Called Wanda is the greatest hour for any former Python. Originally known as the working title of A Wish Called Fonda, Cleese then reworked his original ideas and the result was this masterpiece of cinematic comedy. It even has a universal appeal, with characters being featured of different nationalities. This film is totally faultless. It's a solid movie that holds up surprisingly well after a number of decades. If the words uproarious, hilarious, or side-splitting mean anything to you, this is your film for sure! It improves with each new screening as a matter of fact.
This film doesn't rely on swearing for its laughs, nor does it rely on overacting either. It relies on its clever script and an impeccable bunch of actors instead. The same crew tried again about a decade later with Fierce Creature. A good attempt, but it wasn't the same. A Fish Called Wanda is one of a kind...and that kind is very, very funny and just plain FUN! Fans of John Cleese or Kevin Kline will not be disappointed. Come on, how can you resist the prospect of seeing Michael Palin running over Kevin Kline with a steamroller after Kline eats Palin's tropic fish?!

Highly recommended!

"Wanda, do you have any idea what it's like being English? Being so correct all the time, being so stifled by this dread of, of doing the wrong thing, of saying to someone "Are you married?" and hearing "My wife left me this morning," or saying, uh, "Do you have children?" and being told they all burned to death on Wednesday. You see, Wanda, we'll all terrified of embarrassment. That's why we're so... dead. Most of my friends are dead, you know, we have these piles of corpses to dinner."

10/10

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Under-appreciated brit com

Posted : 2 years, 8 months ago on 27 April 2007 01:18 (A review of A Fish Called Wanda)

This is my favorite british comedy, even more so than the Monty Python classics. But I'm saddened that it's getting dissed here at listal. 6.8 average? come on, are people simply voting based on the silly title, or have they actually sat down and enjoyed this comedy-robbery-blackmail-double-crossing laugh-til-it-hurts fest?

so many memorable lines...

'Oh no! It's K-k-k-k-KEN coming to K-k-k-k-KILL ME!!'

I honestly can't decide who was the funniest; Cleese, Kline or Palin. All were brilliant. Curtis didn't really have a comic role or memorable lines, but she had total chemistry with the rest of the cast, which made this ensemble that much more enjoyable.

Best part was where Otto (Kline) beats up Archie (Cleese) by putting a bag on his head and beating him, but when he takes bag off and finds out it wasn't a robber, he starts apologizing, 'Sorry, I didn't know it was you... i mean after all, WHO ROBS THEIR OWN HOUSE?' and then resumes beating him. only to apologize again. oh man, what a gem!

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